[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Baffling Bible Questions Answered for Tuesday, May 31, 2016

[Paul Smith]

Hello and greetings once again to most of you for the second time 
today.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential 
care, that you are all doing well.

This particular Bible questions and answers leaves me a little bit 
confused, and maybe it will for some of you as well.  We have four 
pastors reading these lines, and I daresay that they may take issue 
with what the columnist has to say.  Anyway here it is, and may the 
chips fall where they may.  We're in the book of Daniel.



Daniel 9:24

Question:  Daniel's prophecy of the seventy "sevens" seems to be one of 
the most specific found in the Old Testament.  But if the prophecy 
really predicts the coming of the Messiah to set up His kingdom within 
490 years of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, this did not happen.  If 
the prophecy does not specify this period of time, how is it to be understood?

Answer:  First, it is necessary to understand the content of the 
prophecy.  Daniel's phrases, and their most likely meaning, are the following:

1.  To finish transgressions:  to put an end to man's rebellion and, 
thus, to establish a new order on earth.

2.  To put an end to sin:  to establish a new and just society in which 
righteousness will triumph.

3.  To atone for wickedness:  to accomplish through the Messiah's 
self-sacrifice the atonement that makes forgiveness possible.

4.  To bring in everlasting righteousness:  to permanently establish a 
society in which justice, holiness and righteousness, and holiness mark 
every relationship.

5.  To seal up vision and prophecy:  to see the fulfillment of all the 
visions and predictions of the Old Testament prophets.

6.  To anoint the Most Holy:  to consecrate the Messiah or the temple 
of God and so officially inaugurate the rule of God on earth.

It is clear from looking at this list that, despite the death of 
Christ, which has won our salvation, the other aspects of Daniel's 
prophecy have not yet been accomplished during the passage of nearly 
2500 years.

Yet, the prophecy does speak of a period of 490 years, which is the 
idiomatic meaning of the Hebrew expression "seventy sevens," or as 
older versions have it, "seventy weeks." What is more, we know when the 
490-year period was to have begun.  Daniel 9:25 says the period begins 
with "the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." That 
decree was issued in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, in 457 B.C.

It would seem then that history's flow, according to the Old Testament 
prophets, should have ended 490 years later, about A.D. 34.

But it did not.

However, if we look closely at the 490-year period, we see it is 
divided into several groupings.  The first is two sets of years, one 
set of seven sevens (forty-nine years, 9:25) and another set of 
sixty-two sevens (434 years, 9:25).  According to Daniel 9:25, 
forty-nine years after the decree was issued, the city "will be rebuilt 
with streets and a trench." By 408 B.C., stimulated by Ezra and 
Nehemiah, that work was complete.  If we subtract the set of sixty-two 
sevens, or 434 years, from the years that had already passed, we come 
up with a date of A.D. 27, the date most scholar believe that Jesus 
began His public ministry.  Thus, Daniel's prediction that, after 
sixty-nine of his seventy sevens, "the Anointed One, the ruler, comes" 
(9:25) would be completely accurate.

But what about the rest of the prophecy? And what happened to the 
seventieth "seven," the last seven years in Daniel's prophecy? Verse 26 
says that, after the sixty-ninth seven, the Anointed One (the word is 
"Messiah" in Hebrew, "Christ" in Greek) "will be cut off, and have 
nothing." This is a clear Old Testament indication of the death of the 
Messiah.  The prophecy of this verse goes on to predict the subsequent 
destruction of the city and the temple, after which "the end will come 
like a flood."

The poin here is that we know from history that the seventieth 
seven-year period did not follow directly upon the sixty-ninth.  After 
the Messiah appeared at the end of the sixty-ninth seven, a period of 
time passed before His death about A.D. 30.  And another period of some 
forty more years passed before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its 
temple in A.D. 70.  Clearly then, since verse 27 picks up the sequence 
of the final seven-year period, an undetermined period of time is 
interposed between the end of the four hundred eighty-third year of 
Daniel's prophecy and the final seven years.

If this understanding is correct, history's culminating events spoken 
of by the Old Testament prophets, and by Jesus in Matthew 24 and Mark 
13, will take place in our future, when the final seven-year period of 
Daniel's prophecy begins.



Daniel 11:12

Question:  What events are described in the complex images and 
difficult language of these chapters?

Answer:  Intense study of chapter 11 and comparison with the history of 
the area make it clear that much of this description has to do with 
rulers who lived between the time of Daniel and the New Testament era.  
Many, however, see 11:40 as a transition verse, shifting the focus of 
description from history past to the distant future and specifically to 
the last of Daniel's seventy sevens.  The interpretation of the passage 
is complicated by differing views of prophetic passages held by 
Christians and also by the fact that prophecy frequently has dual 
reference.  That is, a prediction might be of actions taken by the 
Seleucid Antiochus IV around 160 B.C. and at the same time foreshadow 
actions to be taken by a more distant, more powerful and evil ruler at 
history's end.  While the complications of the passage are best left 
for commentaries to unravel, it is enough to note that every prediction 
made by Daniel that involves history past has been fulfilled literally. 
Thus, we can assume that any predictions still unfulfilled will be 
fulfilled in just as literal a fashion.

And there you have this week's Baffling Bible Questions column for this 
week.  Hope you were able to make some sense of what you read.

I have a question that perhaps only one of our four pastors reading 
this can answer.  In the first question, among the six explanations, 
mention was made of "transgressions" in 1 and "sin" in explanation 2.  
What is the difference between a sin and a transgression? Thanks for 
anyone stepping up to the plate to answer my question.

And that will do it for today.  Next Monday, Lord willing, this column 
will continue, but tomorrow we will resume the Daily Thought posts.  
Until then may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, 
individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  
Your Christian friend and brother, Paul